A Silent Kind of Strength

Chapter 31

The second round was decided. A cavalry battle. And Izuku had the second most amount of points. It was no ten million thank the gods. RIP Todoroki. But still, a target was on his back. And now he needed to find a team who would be willing to work with the quirkless kid.

He looked hesitantly over his shoulder at Shinso, the other boy was looking over the point distributions on the large screen above the stage. But after a second he seemed to notice Izuku's gaze. When they locked eyes the taller boy seemed confused by his friend's expression, before realization dawned and he let out an exasperated huff.

"Of course we're going to be on the same team dummy. Let's go find Mei." The blinding grin he got in response made him give his own small smile in return. They threaded through to the back of the crowd, knowing she had retreated earlier to look over her equipment.

"Mei-chan! Wanna team up?!" She enthusiastically agreed, tightening one last screw on her jetpack she stood so they could hunt down one last teammate. They didn't get very far before said teammated instead hunted them. "Hey guys!" The bubbly voice of Uraraka called out to them, grabbing their attention with an added wave. "Can I join your team?"

Izuku lit up. Instantly muttering about how useful her quirk was and the beginnings of plans. Shinso gave her his easy grin and gestured to his friend who was too deep in his head to notice. "This means yes." She giggled in response and bounced the rest of the way up to the group. "So. What's the plan?"

___

At the starting buzzer they were off. Running clockwise around the edge of the arena even as most of the other teams bee-lined towards team Todoroki. Izuku scanned the path ahead as he sat up on the shoulders of Uraraka and Shinso.

"To the right!" He called and they changed directions accordingly. He lashed out a hand and snagged the headband of a distracted class B student as they ran past. He quickly tied it around his neck as he kept a look out for their next target.

This was the main body of their plan. Stealth. While everyone was distracted they would snag as many points for themselves as they could. Of course there were contingency plans as well. Izuku wanted to leave nothing to chance. Shinso and Uraraka deserved to move on to the next round, and Hatsume wanted to use the sports festival as much as possible to be able to impress the support companies that were watching.

He would make sure they moved on.

He dodged a swipe from Asui's tongue and retaliated with a shot from the gun cradled in his right hand. The bullet exploded into a net with spider silk thin cords. They were slightly sticky and very easy to get tangled up in. He watched as Shoji went down as his leg got caught up with his arm. The greenette winced a bit as the other boy hit the ground with a harsh smack and the two smaller teens he was carrying launched across the turf with twin oomphs.

Oops. "Sorry!" He called out as they ran past and Uraraka snagged the headband from Asui.

The next few minutes passed by in a similar way, them sneaking around and snagging whatever they could, occasionally retaliating with Izuku's gun when needed. And then the timer kit 3 minutes and Present Mic betrayed them. "Wow! Watch all the little listeners go! With three minutes left we have a surprising line up! Currently in 1st after having played pass the potato with the 10 million is Team Bakugo! 2nd is the shockingly mixed team Midoriya! 3rd is…" Shit fuck. He tuned out the rest of the announcers rambles as a whole slew of teams suddenly turned towards them.

Of course they would make a more viable target than the walking bomb of Kachan's team. He takes a deep breath as the others approach. "OK. Plan space jump. Brace yourselves!" 

Uraraka tapped all four of them with her quirk and Izuku prepared to flip the switch on the jetpack Mei had strapped to his back. The controls on it were hard to use, but he would have to make do in order to get his team out of the press of aggressors coming right for them.

At the last possible moment he hit the button on the joystick he had clipped to a lead connected to his jacket. He angled it forwards slightly as they rose into the air quickly with their reduced weight. Once they had made it over the group of students that were gunning for them he angled the stick more to bring them in for a landing and then hit the button to turn off the propulsion system once more. When they were a foot off the ground Ochako returned their weight and they landed in a dead sprint.

Team Midoriya ran in an arc, keeping near the wall as they were chased by a mob of super powered teens. Occasionally one of the other teams would manage to get close enough to attack and they would have to jump again, bouncing around like an evasive bunny.

Their luck ran out at the one minute mark. Apparently they had gotten too close to team Bakugo. And the other boy had seen a chance for a little revenge. So as they hopped into the air to avoid the quicksand trap set by Honenuki they were met by a flying feral blonde with a vendetta.

tossed some money onto the counter and dragged their friend and her portion of their lunch back towards the main school building.

They set up their improvised picnic under a tree a good deal away from the crowds. They each traded their extra portions around before digging in. As they sat and chatted a few others from their classes came and went, stopping in the shade to inhale their own snacks and chat before running off to go talk to someone else they had seen. It was a nice lunch.

What was less nice was walking back into the arena to find most of the girls from 1-A looking embarrassed while wearing horribly garnish cheerleading uniforms. Jiro practically hiding behind the taller Yaoyarozu. Izuku glanced over his shoulder to where Shinso had been walking only to find that the taller boy had vanished. He spun until he found his friend stalking off towards two of his other classmates. He quickly identified them as a slightly uncomfortable looking Kaminari and a gleeful Mineta. Ah. So that's what was going on.

The greenette sat back and watched as his friend took care of the situation. He was too far away to hear what was said but from the stance and Kaminari's face he could guess at the lecture. The electric blonde seemed to agree quickly enough and turned to the girls as if to apologize. But the smaller of the purple boys didn't seem repentant at all. Izuku grinned as he saw Hitoshi's stance turn from protective anger into righteous ferality. 

It only took a few short threats before the tiny pervert scampered off into the tunnels. Mei was giggling by that point, having caught on to what was up. After a second she skipped off towards the other girls. He pretended he didn't hear her loudly complimenting her fellow pinkette on the outfit.